ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s wish for peace should not be seen as weakness, warning that Islamabad would respond to any attempt to disrupt peace in the country.
“Any attempt from Afghanistan to disrupt peace in Pakistan, these attempts to make Pakistan unstable have been answered and will be answered,” Tarar said at a seminar titled “Afghan Predicament and the Path to Peace” in Islamabad.
Tarar said Pakistan and Afghanistan were neighbours and would remain so, with close links between the two countries.
“Pakistan believes in peace, Pakistan has always believed in peace,” Tarar said, adding that Pakistan supported living peacefully side by side.
He said Pakistan had made several attempts to hold talks, as problems could be solved through negotiations. He said high-level Pakistani delegations had travelled to Afghanistan to find solutions and support peaceful relations between the two countries.
“The Afghan interim government needs to move away from its militant way of thinking and act like a responsible government,” he said, adding that current problems were caused by this “militant mindset”.
Tarar said Afghanistan had strong potential for trade links and that peace could help create trade routes from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
He said these routes could allow landlocked Central Asian countries to send goods to warm-water ports. He added that “the only problem is violent extremism and militancy”.
The minister said that safe places for terrorists and members of banned groups remained in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had raised the issue through talks and stressed that lasting peace needed a workable plan and dialogue.
Tarar also spoke about Afghanistan’s young population and said many women were kept out of the workforce because some beliefs stopped parts of the population from taking part in economic progress. He said certain groups in Afghan society were denied basic rights because of what he called a “self-created interpretation of Islam”.
“This version of Islam that is being forced on people is not the true teaching of Islam,” Tarar said, adding that peaceful coexistence meant accepting the idea of “live and let live”.
Tarar said Pakistan had continued talks and negotiations and had tried to show that “only peace can lead to prosperity.”
Reported By: Staff Reporter I Islamabad
